This invention relates to a light-sensitive silver halide photographic material. More particularly, it relates to a light-sensitive silver halide photographic material improved in the color reproducibility and also improved in the resistance to both of the discoloration of dye images through light and the yellowing thereof to be generated by light.
It has been well known that dye images are produced by subjecting a light-sensitive silver halide photographic material to imagewise exposure to light to effect color development, whereby an oxidized product of an aromatic primary amine series color developing agent couples with a coupler to form dyes including, for example, indophenol, indoaniline, indamine, azomethine, phenoxadine, phenadine and other dyes similar to these. In such a photographic process, generally employed is a color reproduction system utilizing the subtractive color process, in which used is a light-sensitive silver halide color photographic material comprising blue-sensitive, green-sensitive and red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers containing couplers each having the relationship of complementary color, namely, couplers which color-develop in yellow, magenta and cyan, respectively.
The coupler used for formation of yellow color images includes, for example, acylacetoanilide series couplers, and, as the coupler for formation of magenta color images) for example, pyrazolone, pyrazolobenzimidazole, pyrazolotriazole or indazolone series couplers are known, and further, as the coupler for formation of cyan color images, for example, phenol or naphthol series couplers are generally used.
The coupler widely used for formation of magenta dye includes, for example, 1,2-pyrazolo-5-on type couplers.
It has been a serious problem that the magenta couplers of 1,2-pyrazol-5-on type have a secondary absorption at the vicinity of 430 nm in addition to a primary absorption at the vicinity of 550 nm, and therefore various studies have been made to solve such a problem.
A magenta coupler having an anilino group at the 3-position of the 1,2-pyrazolo-5-on type coupler, which is small in the above-mentioned secondary absorption, is useful for obtaining, in particular, a color image for printing. This art is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,343,703, British Pat. No. 1,059,994, etc.
As a means for further decreasing the secondary absorption at the vicinity of 430 nm of the above magenta coupler, there have been proposed magenta couplers including, for example, pyrazolobenzimidazoles disclosed in British Pat. No. 1,047,612, indazolones disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,770,447, and pyrazolotriazoles disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,725,067, British Pat. No. 1,252,418 and No. 1,334,515, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 162548/1984 and No. 171956/1984, etc. The dyes formed through these couplers shows extremely smaller secondary absorption at the vicinity of 430 nm than the dyed formed through the 1,2-pyrazolo-5-on type coupler do, and thus, they are desirable from the viewpoint of the color reproducibility, and also they are advantageous in that they are desirably very little liable to generation of yellow stains at an undeveloped portion against heat and humidity.
However, in general, the azomethine dye images to be formed through the magenta couplers of pyrazolotriazole type have very low fastness to light.
The disadvantage like this may result in loss of "image recording/storage properties" which are performances necessary for a light-sensitive material, in particular, for a light-sensitive material for direct appreciation. Especially in recent years, this is a problem still more serious because photographs hve become stored in various states such that they are displayed rather than merely stored. Thus, a drastic improvement has been strongly desired.
As a technique to improve the above-mentioned fastness to light, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 125732/1984, for instance, discloses a method in which 1H-pyrazolo-[3,2-C]-s-triazole type magenta coupler is used in combination with a phenol series or phenyl ether series compound. However, the effect obtainable therefrom has been still at an insufficient level.
Also, as a technique to improve the fastness to light by changing the structure of the above magenta coupler, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 43659/1985, for instance, proposes to use a 1H-pyrazolo-[1,5-b]-pyrazole series compound as a magenta coupler. However, there occurs a problem in the spectral absorption characteristics, for example, a problem that the absorption maximum turns to be a long wave.
As mentioned above, in the present state of the art, the fastness to light which can be achieved when the above couplers of pyrazolotriazole type and the like are used has not been improved to such a level that they may be applied to a photographic material for printing.
Further, as a means for improving the fastness to light of the magenta couplers of the above pyrazolotriazole type, the present inventors have ever proposed to add a particular compound to a layer other than the layers containing such couplers. The method proposed has achieved better improvement in the fastness to light. However, along with the progress in photographic techniques, demands for the fastness to light of photographic products had been estimated to become higher, and thus the present inventors have made further studies in order to achieve higher fastness to light, during the course of which the present invention has been accomplished.